The present invention generally relates to a system and method for electronically delivering documents. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and method for electronically delivering documents designated for electronic delivery within a document generating system.
At present, almost every business of any size communicates with its customers almost exclusively through forms and documents which are printed and mailed. Typically, in this process documents are prepared using word processors which output the completed documents via a printer. Once out of the printer, the document is then inserted into an envelope and mailed. Overall, the present system for communicating with customers is both slow and very expensive involving high labor and postage costs for each piece of correspondence.
For these reasons, many companies have tried to encourage their customers to use the Internet to keep updated and to receive correspondence. However, the present systems available for companies are extremely limited in their scope and they require a great deal of customer participation to operate effectively. Additionally, many companies are reluctant to trust an electronic delivery system to transmit important documents. In many cases, such distrust is well founded as the present systems available for electronic document delivery are unreliable. In particular, many of the present document delivery systems are unreliable due to addressing errors for electronic mailboxes which are notoriously prone to user error.
Accordingly, what is needed is a comprehensive electronic delivery system and method which provides for the reliable and efficient delivery of documents.